Final Project Assignment#1: Nanci Kopecky

Boston 311 Service Requests for 2023

library(tidyverse)
library(readr)
library(ggplot2)

knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE, warning=FALSE, message=FALSE)

Part 1. Introduction

1. Data set(s) Introduction:

311 Service Requests is a data set on Analyze Boston data.boston.gov, an open-source data website run by the City of Boston. Residents can make service requests by phone or with an app. For 2023, there are 74,930 service requests so far. Each row represents a service request. There are 29 columns. Each column contains detailed information on each service request including the description, time, date, location, and city department/domain. Service requests are about maintenance, repair, cleaning, and policy.

2. What questions do you like to answer with this data set(s)?

Questions that could inform city officials could be the following:

Do residents use the phone or app more to make requests? Does certain time of the day, week, or month receive more requests? What type of service requests are made in each neighborhood? Are the proportions of On Time service requests the same for each neighborhood? for each city department? What type of service requests are made in each neighborhood? Which city department receives the most service requests?

Part 2. Describe the data set(s)

1. Read the data set.

This data set is read in with a url.

Boston311 <- read.csv(url("https://data.boston.gov/dataset/8048697b-ad64-4bfc-b090-ee00169f2323/resource/e6013a93-1321-4f2a-bf91-8d8a02f1e62f/download/tmpo8qm0oqd.csv"))
Boston311

Bos311 <- as.data.frame.matrix(Boston311)
Bos311

2. Descriptive information of the data set(s)

dim(Boston311)

[1] 74930    29

head(Boston311)

3. Summary statistics of the dataset(s). This data set does not have numerical data so frequencies and percentages will summarize the categorical variables. Below are just a few of the categorical variables.

Frequency and Proportions of Service Requests by Department

prop.table(table(Bos311$subject))

                   Animal Control          Boston Police Department 
                     1.186441e-02                      2.455625e-03 
  Boston Water & Sewer Commission             Inspectional Services 
                     4.684372e-03                      6.435340e-02 
          Mayor's 24 Hour Hotline             Neighborhood Services 
                     3.377819e-02                      9.342053e-05 
    Parks & Recreation Department               Property Management 
                     3.870279e-02                      7.807287e-03 
          Public Works Department Transportation - Traffic Division 
                     5.689177e-01                      2.673429e-01 

table(Bos311$subject)

                   Animal Control          Boston Police Department 
                              889                               184 
  Boston Water & Sewer Commission             Inspectional Services 
                              351                              4822 
          Mayor's 24 Hour Hotline             Neighborhood Services 
                             2531                                 7 
    Parks & Recreation Department               Property Management 
                             2900                               585 
          Public Works Department Transportation - Traffic Division 
                            42629                             20032 

ggplot(Bos311, aes(subject)) + 
  geom_bar() +
  coord_flip()

table(Bos311$source)

Citizens Connect App      City Worker App     Constituent Call 
               34688                 7559                29407 
  Employee Generated   Maximo Integration         Self Service 
                1501                    1                 1774 

prop.table(table(Bos311$source, Bos311$neighborhood))

                      
                                                      Allston
  Citizens Connect App 4.671026e-04 3.736821e-04 1.734953e-03
  City Worker App      5.338316e-05 2.669158e-05 2.402242e-04
  Constituent Call     2.135326e-04 7.860670e-03 1.508074e-03
  Employee Generated   5.338316e-05 1.094355e-03 1.067663e-04
  Maximo Integration   0.000000e+00 1.334579e-05 0.000000e+00
  Self Service         0.000000e+00 2.001868e-04 5.338316e-05
                      
                       Allston / Brighton     Back Bay  Beacon Hill
  Citizens Connect App       3.489924e-02 2.518350e-02 1.522755e-02
  City Worker App            5.018017e-03 6.085680e-03 7.273455e-03
  Constituent Call           2.581076e-02 1.087682e-02 6.219138e-03
  Employee Generated         1.361271e-03 8.941679e-04 1.601495e-04
  Maximo Integration         0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00
  Self Service               2.615775e-03 9.608968e-04 2.669158e-04
                      
                             Boston     Brighton  Charlestown   Dorchester
  Citizens Connect App 1.801682e-02 3.042840e-03 1.732283e-02 6.056319e-02
  City Worker App      3.136261e-03 1.868411e-04 3.016148e-03 8.581343e-03
  Constituent Call     1.067663e-02 2.482317e-03 9.822501e-03 7.432270e-02
  Employee Generated   7.607100e-04 2.402242e-04 7.874016e-04 3.283064e-03
  Maximo Integration   0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00
  Self Service         3.202989e-04 2.669158e-04 7.607100e-04 3.883625e-03
                      
                       Downtown / Financial District  East Boston
  Citizens Connect App                  2.573068e-02 4.320032e-02
  City Worker App                       8.567997e-03 8.874950e-03
  Constituent Call                      1.287869e-02 2.663820e-02
  Employee Generated                    5.872147e-04 4.137195e-04
  Maximo Integration                    0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00
  Self Service                          1.094355e-03 9.075137e-04
                      
                       Fenway / Kenmore / Audubon Circle / Longwood
  Citizens Connect App                                 1.043641e-02
  City Worker App                                      1.267850e-03
  Constituent Call                                     4.817830e-03
  Employee Generated                                   2.402242e-04
  Maximo Integration                                   0.000000e+00
  Self Service                                         2.936074e-04
                      
                       Greater Mattapan    Hyde Park Jamaica Plain     Mattapan
  Citizens Connect App     1.373282e-02 9.795809e-03  2.522354e-02 5.605232e-04
  City Worker App          5.284933e-03 7.486988e-03  3.523288e-03 3.336447e-04
  Constituent Call         2.850661e-02 2.208728e-02  2.543707e-02 1.734953e-03
  Employee Generated       1.374616e-03 8.407847e-04  2.188709e-03 6.672895e-05
  Maximo Integration       0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00  0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00
  Self Service             1.321233e-03 1.681569e-03  1.561457e-03 6.672895e-05
                      
                       Mission Hill   Roslindale      Roxbury South Boston
  Citizens Connect App 7.967436e-03 1.361271e-02 2.982784e-02 5.244895e-03
  City Worker App      1.761644e-03 2.602429e-03 9.795809e-03 6.405979e-04
  Constituent Call     7.019885e-03 1.701588e-02 4.405445e-02 3.283064e-03
  Employee Generated   3.336447e-04 8.274389e-04 2.175364e-03 1.201121e-04
  Maximo Integration   0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00
  Self Service         5.471774e-04 1.534766e-03 1.441345e-03 1.601495e-04
                      
                       South Boston / South Boston Waterfront    South End
  Citizens Connect App                           4.836514e-02 4.334712e-02
  City Worker App                                4.524223e-03 7.847324e-03
  Constituent Call                               2.182037e-02 1.143734e-02
  Employee Generated                             1.067663e-03 4.537568e-04
  Maximo Integration                             0.000000e+00 0.000000e+00
  Self Service                                   9.075137e-04 7.073268e-04
                      
                       West Roxbury
  Citizens Connect App 9.061791e-03
  City Worker App      4.751101e-03
  Constituent Call     1.593487e-02
  Employee Generated   6.005605e-04
  Maximo Integration   0.000000e+00
  Self Service         2.121981e-03

ggplot(Bos311, aes(source)) + 
  geom_bar() +
  coord_flip()

3. The Tentative Plan for Visualization

1. Briefly describe what data analyses (please the special note on statistics in the next section) and visualizations you plan to conduct to answer the research questions you proposed above.

I would like to present bar graphs and maps answer the questions in part one.

This example shows proportion of On Time service requests by neighborhood.

ggplot(Bos311, aes(neighborhood)) +
  geom_bar(aes(fill = ontime), position = "fill") +
  labs(title = "311 Service Requests for 2023", x = "Neighborhood", y = "Count") + 
  coord_flip()

2. Explain why you choose to conduct these specific data analyses and visualizations.

The bar graphs and tables can show if any variable, such as a type of request, particular department or neighborhoods are unusually high. Understanding the where the demands are can help the city be more efficient in terms of assigning resources, management, and communication.

3. If you plan to conduct specific data analyses and visualizations, describe how do you need to process and prepare the tidy data.

Special Note on the role of statistics

After more in depth exploratory analysis, I may decide to conduct chi-square tests to see if there is an assoication between certain variables.